Same Sex Marriage Statement

After prayerful reflection, the lay leaders of First Church in 2004 publicly declared support for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision affirming the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry. Church leaders also stood in opposition to any attempts to limit those rights through an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution. Mary Luti, who was at the time First Church Senior Minister, wrote on behalf of the church leadership in May 2004, giving public voice to our advocacy:

“As followers of Jesus, we believe that we are commanded to 'seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness' in which the first are last, and the last, first; and so we are also bound to love and respect all people, to practice radical hospitality, and to stand with all who suffer indignity, injustice and violence in any form.

“As people of the Bible, we rejoice in its diverse wisdom, we recognize its emphatic trajectory of justice and compassion, and we experience its liberating and reconciling power; and so we are bound to resist employing particular texts of Scripture to condemn, divide, discriminate, or deny equal protection under the law.

“As members of the United Church of Christ, we believe that God is a living God, that God is always doing a new thing, and that God is still speaking; and so we are bound always to be listening, alert for new words that lead us in new directions of justice and generosity.”

First Church continued to advocate for the extension of same-sex marriage recognition, and celebrated the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that made marriage gender neutral in every state. The current Senior Minister Rev. Daniel Smith’s comments on the ruling can be found in the sermon below.